Month: November 2017

Today, the popularity of cameras and online social media’s have contributed to the increasing public’s exposure to police behaviors. The historical invisibility is replaced by “new visibility” of front-line police work. More transparency of police behaviors let general public more concerned about that because they feel uncomfortable with violence. In this study, they find that policemen are aware of their behavior is visible so they need to be more careful in using violence in Canada. Therefore, the prevalence of cameras can change the dynamics of policing. We may expect police brutality can be improved by more visibility and increasing public awareness.

Reference:

BROWN, G. R. (2016). THE BLUE LINE ON THIN ICE: POLICE USE OF FORCE MODIFICATIONS IN THE ERA OF CAMERAPHONES AND YOUTUBE. British Journal Of Criminology, 56(2), 293-312. doi:10.1093/bjc/azv052

Brazil became democratization after 1985, but the actual practices still couldn’t catch up with formal principles. The article reveals the criminal justice system in Brazil discriminate Afro-Brazilians: they are more likely to be the victims of assaults by polices and less likely to get protection by polices. These discriminatory phenomena in Brazil reflect that the democratic system in Brazil is unstable and imperfect. Comparing to the United States, are Brazil experiences similar? What do you think?

Police brutality in Politics is everywhere, not only in western world, but also in Asia. Seven policemen have hurt a peaceful protestor in the most influential democratic protest in China since 1989. This democratic movement is known as “Occupy Central (Hong Kong commercial center)” in 2014 after “Occupy Wall Street” in the United States. Policemen have been ordered to prevent this illegal protest by Hong Kong government and Chinese central government. Another dispute in this movement is using tear gases toward peaceful protestors. If we compare the police brutality toward protestors, we can find some interesting facts about police using forces. For example, facing complex political environment and high public pressure, Hong Kong policemen can keep restrictive attitude toward people. After the movement, seven policemen were prosecuted by Department of Justice in Hong Kong.

Police brutality is not only reflecting on racial and crimes, but also occurs in political crisis. As we can see in Catalonia referendum, Catalonia polices received orders from central government to stop the constitutionally illegal referendum. Policemen use violent methods to disperse voters and take over polling stations. Clearly, the independence of Catalonia is a political crisis between local Catalonia government and central government. In some extents, police brutality intensified the contradictions in Catalonia. There is no doubt that this article can give public attention toward police brutality in political field.

Police brutality happens all the time in different places and different forms. Just days ago, one man had been killed by police in the excuse of “self-dense”. However, most witnesses and audiences of the video of shooting the man didn’t think the man have violent intention. What is the criteria of police using violent weapons? How to judge police behavior? We can’t give a clear answer about their right or wrong. General public can watch the news and videos by themselves and give their opinions.

Oscar Grant was shot and killed in 2009 by a police officer. This exact moment was caught on video and was uploaded onto the popular video site, YouTube, allowing many to see it. Although this event did not occur at the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement, it did begin a large discussion of police brutality against African Americans. One important part of Jack Taylor’s article is that he looks at memorials created for Oscar Grant. Memorials such as these allow for a permanent reminder of social issues within our country that cannot be escaped.

How do we begin to talk about issues like police brutality? Despite it’s relevance in society, it is not an easy topic to discuss. It is something that needs to be brought up though in order to draw attention to the problems and create solutions. In the wake of the killing of Michael Brown, Felicia Mitchell was directly engaged with this problem as she was teaching a social work class regarding culture. With such a controversial topic, it is hard to know how to go about discussions. Mitchell took this as an opportunity to inform students about all that was going on. Her article gives a great layout as to how difficult things such as the shooting of an innocent young man and police brutality can be handled in the classroom.

This article focuses on police brutality in one specific area, Prince George’s County in Maryland. In this specific location, there have been many instances of police brutality that have involved people of color. Hutto and Green argue that police brutality exists because of capitalism and that police “are agents of capital and will continue to demonize, criminalize, and disproportionately punish and oppress African Americans” (116). The only way this can be fixed is through things such as social movements. They aim to draw attention to large areas of racist police brutality and show the flaws within systems.

Recent occurrences are not the first time police brutality has been seen against minorities. One large event where this occurred frequently were the 1967 race riots. In this article, Embrick looks at how things have changed and have also stayed the same. Despite a gap of fifty years, race relations and police brutality are still large problems in the United States. Blacks and whites still exist in two incredibly different societies. In the future, there is aim to bridge the gap that exists.

“I can’t breathe” were the famous words said by Eric Garner before he passed away while held in a chokehold by police.

The term has since become one of the many phrases used in the Black Lives Matter movement. In this article, Aymer focuses on how black men are meant to help deal with trauma related to police brutality. Most of the well known recent police brutality cases have occurred against black men, causing them to live in consistent fear of those who are supposed to be protecting them.